US forces guide Afghans from the shadows

"The enemy comes from Pakistan," he said, echoing the words of President Ashraf Ghani who last week accused his neighbour of sending "messages of war" to Afghanistan.

Pakistan, which was one of three countries to recognise the Taliban's 1996-2001 government, is often accused of supporting the militants' insurgency for its own strategic purposes, a charge it denies.

- 'This is how we do it' -

Since the end of December, 13,000 foreign troops deployed in the country have been mainly limited to training local forces.

"A lot of it is just sharing 'This is how we do it.' I don't care if they do it our way, we just give them recommendations," explained Major Edward Bankston, head of the US advisers at the base.

Lieutenant Ellyn Grosz, who assists Afghan Major Rassoul, head of air support, at the Iron Triangle headquarters, has a more positive view of the training, saying it transformed coordination between air and ground forces.

"It's a huge success, before that they would do a gun run (aerial bombardment), land, and ask 'so how did I do?'," she said enthusiastically.

Still, the grey-bearded Major Rassoul, who earned his wings at the helm of a helicopter fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s, says he is under no illusions about the task ahead. "In the Eighties, we had new gear. These days we don't have enough new equipment against the Taliban," he said.

Equipment has been a key issue for the Afghan army since the end of the Taliban regime in 2001.

One Afghan officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said one issue was that Afghan troops were not maintaining their weapons properly.

"For instance, I clean my weapon, my M16 every morning, but here, nobody does that and the maintenance is very poor," he said.

And on the ground, the Afghan army is recording huge losses. Between the start of January and end of July, it lost 4,302 soldiers, against 3,337 in the same period last year, according to NATO.

Operation Iron Triangle was successful in its objective of "cleansing" the three districts near the Pakistani border of all enemy forces and even led to the discovery of 150 improvised explosive devices, according to the Afghan officer.

Colonel JB Vowell, who heads the US advisers, said the Afghan forces had absorbed well their lessons in the fields of artillery, aviation, and intelligence. But, he cautioned, any gains would only be sustainable with a long-term political solution to meet residents' needs.

"Success here will be defined if governments and district government can reach people more, and security will follow."
Source: AFP